Popular Perth live music venue Badlands Bar has shocked patrons and artists by revealing it will shut its doors for good by the end of the year.
Management said it had been suffocated by rising insurance premiums and had no other choice but to make the tough call to pull the curtains down permanently by Christmas.
“For the past 12 months Badlands has been on the receiving end of a whopping tenfold increase in our public liability insurance premiums despite never having made a claim before,” the bar said in a social media post.
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“This was the only insurance coverage we were able to obtain to ensure the venue could continue to operate.”
The post said insurance costs are a “known, but rarely spoken about issue” impacting live music venues across Australia.
The independently-owned small business on Aberdeen St in Perth said these increases straight after COVID and on top of escalating “operating costs across the board” meant Badlands was no longer financially viable.
“For us it has meant that our business, that only ordinarily trades around 12-16 hours per week, now needs hundreds of dollars in revenue per hour of opening just to pay an insurance premium that we have never needed to call upon in the last seven years,” the bar said.
The venue has played host to the likes of Gyroscope, Kisschasy, Spacey Jane and Karnivool over the past seven years.
News of the closure was met with a wave of grief from loyal customers, who said “Badlands will be a hard act to follow”.
“Total awful news,” one person said.
“One of the best venues in the country, FINISHED!
“I’ve had so many great memories at this wicked venue. Now, we must find a new home.”
A local firm representing live tributes said it was “a kick in the guts to the local music industry”.
“Badlands Bar was a regular venue to play with our tribute and original shows. They’ve been so supportive of a variety of music and it’s been a pleasure to play there and go to many gigs, local and touring, over the years,” Hensteeth Productions shared on social media.
“Perth is really going to miss a venue of this capacity.”
Badlands Bar owner Mark Partridge told 7NEWS.com.au he felt like he was letting patrons down but conceded he had been weighing up the decision for 12 months.
Final straw
“You don’t start a business, struggle through COVID and then come out the other side to reach this point,” he said.
“There’s no secret it’s been tough. The premiums were the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Badlands Bar has promised there will be plenty on offer before the microphones are switched off.
“We take pride in what we do. Rather than shut up shop we will stick it out, put on four or five months of live music and hopefully create some more memories,” Partridge said.
He is also certain there will be no encore, saying while he appreciates the well-wishes of patrons the bar would not endorse fundraising efforts to help and the closure is final.
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